Report: 3 Washington cities rank in the top 10 for lakeside living

Washington beach towns didn't rank high in a recent study, but lakeside living proved to be popular in the Pacific Northwest. Swipe through to see which cities have the best lake vibes.

Washington beach towns didn't rank high in a recent study, but lakeside living proved to be popular in the Pacific Northwest. Swipe through to see which cities have the best lake vibes.

Photo: Michael Walmsley Via Windermere

Photo: Michael Walmsley Via Windermere

Image
1of/17

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 17

Washington beach towns didn't rank high in a recent study, but lakeside living proved to be popular in the Pacific Northwest. Swipe through to see which cities have the best lake vibes.

Washington beach towns didn't rank high in a recent study, but lakeside living proved to be popular in the Pacific Northwest. Swipe through to see which cities have the best lake vibes.

Photo: Michael Walmsley Via Windermere

Report: 3 Washington cities rank in the top 10 for lakeside living

1 / 17

Back to Gallery

Washington's beaches aren't the most idyllic paradises, they're mostly rocky and strewn with washed up seaweed and driftwood.

And of course, a day on the Washington coast is most likely to end up gray or rainy. But that's not to say the beaches of Kalaloch or La Push aren't gorgeous, they're just not where you're going to spend a day reading with the sand between your toes.

So it shouldn't be much of a surprise that the list of WalletHub's best beach towns to live in is littered with California, Florida and Hawaii beach towns. However, Edmonds -- a city just north of Seattle -- did nab the 29th spot.

That being said, Washington beach towns received some love in a different way. Four cities made it onto the list of best lake beach towns.

The list of lake beach towns included quite a few that dot the coasts of the Great Lakes, but three cities that border lakes Washington and Sammamish made it in the top 10.

The list was the result of a study that calculated different rankings for beach towns. Affordability, weather, safety, economy, education, health and quality of life were all taken into consideration. Those rankings were drawn from different categories. Washington cities grabbed the top spot for two of those: lowest violent crime rate and lowest foreclosure rate given to Mercer Island and Kirkland respectively.